2003 - Representation Required

The TLWG lobbied for legislation to control the supply of labour and also worked on drawing up a code of practice for the industry. The two developments ran in parallel and were closely linked. Dionne Harrison was a TLWG member and was responsible for developing guidance for labour providers, establishing helplines for workers and labour providers, and training auditors. Dionne believes that this was probably the first time that business came together to lobby government to ask for legislation; ‘There is a misunderstanding that business is against legislation, when actually business is supportive of good legislation and wants a fair and level playing field.’ However, one thing the TLWG lacked, was representation from labour providers themselves. There was only one labour provider on the TLWG, and existing labour provider representative bodies were not interested in engaging. Labour providers needed a louder voice to allow them to become part of the solution, as well as bring their experience to what was actually happening in the fields and factories. It was also important to give labour providers a positive face despite the press inevitably focussing on major exploitation issues and the negative connotations of the word; ‘gangmaster’; a term that has been universally hated by all labour providers from the beginning! The TLWG approached Mark Boleat, an expert in trade associations and asked him to create and run a trade association for labour providers.